Recorded at the Texas Public Policy Summit’s 2025 Texas Policy Summit in Austin, TPPF Distinguished Senior Fellow Sherry Sylvester shares her Winners & Losers list from the week of February 21.
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Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio in Austin where we discuss the Winners & Losers for the previous week. President Donald Trump looks like he may get a complete sweep on his cabinet appointments, and Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows released his committee assignments—so the legislative games can truly begin. Here’s who made the list this week:
Winner: Trump Proclaims End to Paper Straws (and RFK, Jr. is Confirmed)
There may be no metaphor that better epitomizes the insanity progressives inflicted on the country than the paper straw. Paper straws are worse than non-binary pronouns and those signs that are still stuck on floors everywhere reminding us to stay six feet apart. Based on no science, if you happen to find yourself in a blue city in 21st century America, paper straws are your only option, most often pushed on you by a sanctimonious waitperson who is in therapy to help her manage her fear of climate change.
But this week the paper straw nightmare ended with another victory for the frustrated and annoyed majority. Trump proclaimed that plastic straws are the straw of the land. Just read this beautiful legal language:
It is therefore the policy of the United States to end the use of paper straws [and eliminate] all policies within the executive branch designed to disfavor plastic straws.
Cue Lee Greenwood. So proud to be an American.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., was also confirmed this week. President Trump continues to make it clear that when it comes to the federal bureaucracy, there is no baby in the bathwater—it all has to be thrown out. Right up to the end of the confirmation process, the legacy media told us RFK, Jr., might not make it, but in a strong rebuke to his cousin, Caroline Kennedy, who said some very awful things about him last week, the GOP Senate Majority made him Secretary of Health and Human Services on a vote of 52 to 48.
Caroline’s attack on her cousin made it clear that blood is not actually thicker than water. By spewing talking points from the lefty hate machine, Caroline made the Kennedys look like the royal family as she tried to portray RFK, Jr. as the awful Prince Andrew. Instead, she came off like Megan Markle.
Caroline apparently is unaware that few Americans care if her entire family of Massachusetts, blue-blood Democrats sets their hair on fire. RFK, Jr. now holds the highest-ranking position in federal government since his father was attorney general and his uncle was president. Trump has redefined the Camelot dynasty. The name Kennedy will stand for something different in America from now on.
Winner: Mark Fogel Released from Russian Prison
Moving news reports this week announced that Mark Fogel, an American school teacher who had been in prison in Russia since 2021, had finally been released from prison. Fogel kissed the snowy ground at Andrews Air Force Base when he finally landed on U.S. soil. He had been arrested for possessing medicinal marijuana, just like WNBA star Brittney Griner, who former President Joe Biden helped get released in 2022, after she served 10 months in prison.
Every American who is falsely imprisoned should be brought home, but Fogel’s release reminds us that Biden ignored him while trading a notorious arms dealer, nicknamed the “Merchant of Death,” for Griner, a gay, African-American basketball star who had walked off the court in protest of the Star Spangled Banner being played before games.
Happily, Griner’s time in a Russian prison changed her perspective, which was clear when she was one of Team USA’s shining stars at this year’s Olympics. Fogel’s mother had talked directly to President Trump during the campaign and he promised her he’d get her son home. Trump gave Russian Alexander Vinnik, a crypto money launderer, in exchange.
Loser: Californians…What are they thinking?
What were Golden State voters watching during the presidential campaign last year? A new poll shows that 57% of voters say they would back Kamala Harris if she ran for governor of the country’s largest state. Gavin Newsom, who is presiding over the current disasters there, can’t run for re-election. Guess they don’t want to be “burdened by what has been.”
Winner: Cy-Fair ISD Passes Gender Disclosure Policy
The Cy-Fair ISD school board passed a gender disclosure policy last week that will require teachers to inform parents if their son is asking to be treated like a girl at school. Dissenting parents can sign a release for the school to allow their child to say they are a different gender than they are. News reports out of Houston say that “many” parents showed up to protest, but some perspective is needed. Cy-Fair is the third largest school district in the state with about 120,000 students. If even 100 parents show up to protest something—and the photos look like the count was much smaller than that—it’s not indicative of anything about what parents think. A University of Houston poll last year found strong majorities of parents oppose policies that empower children of one sex to declare themselves to be the opposite sex.
Winner: Trump’s Team
As of this writing 16 of Trump’s 22 cabinet nominees have been confirmed by the Senate. This includes Tulsi Gabbard, who became Director of National Intelligence this week. Gabbard, with RFK Jr. and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, were viewed as the longest shots so most of the heavy lifting is done. Our friend and former Texas Public Policy Foundation CEO Brooke Rollins was also sworn in as Secretary of Agriculture this week.
Loser: PBS Brags that 68% of Programs are “Diversity Related”
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting abruptly fired its DEI officers this week after the Free Press published comments from a whistleblower that revealed they were trying to get around Trump’s Executive Order to eliminate DEI. Here’s what he said:
In 2023, PBS boasted that 68 percent of its programming was BIPOC or “diversity-related,” and that BIPOC employees comprised 48 percent of new hires, while women accounted for 75 percent of new hires. “Race is a major determining factor in decision-making,” the high-ranking source said. In 2024, when a round of layoffs led to the dismissal of 24 employees and the closure of seven vacant positions, “the DEI budget was untouched,” the source said.
(BIPOC means Black, Indigenous and People of Color.) The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which includes PBS and NPR, gets a half billion dollars in federal funding. Getting rid of its racist hiring practices and DEI programs are not enough. The federal funding needs to stop and they should compete in the marketplace like the rest of the media. Their news shows will die, like MSNBC, and you can already watch Masterpiece Theatre and Sesame Street on Prime, so it’s not a big leap.
Winner: Super Bowl LIX Breaks Viewing Record
An amazing 127.7 million people watched the Super Bowl on Sunday, the most ever, which is good. We don’t have many cultural focus points anymore where everybody watches the same thing at the same time and even though it wasn’t a great game it’s good to see the country come together. President Trump was cheered. Taylor Swift was booed and the Chiefs’ Tight End Travis Kelce admitted the Chiefs’ loss might have been his fault since he took Swift out to dinner instead of watching tape with the team. Doesn’t matter. The Eagles had a big victory parade today and the fans decided not to burn down Philadelphia to celebrate, so everybody is a winner.
Winner: Texas Women’s Longhorns Rout Kentucky
The No. 3 ranked Texas Longhorns routed Kentucky last night 67-49, setting them up to play LSU on Sunday. Over a million people watched the Texas women defeat the South Carolina Gamecocks on Sunday, breaking their 57 game winning streak. Good to see South Carolina go down after their coach, Dawn Staley, came out last year in support of allowing men who think they are women to play in women’s sports. Not sure how Staley feels about the NCAA announcement last week ensuring that only women will compete in women’s sports, as well as news this week that the U.S. Department of Education is asking the NCAA to return all the awards biological men have won in women’s sports so they can be given to the women who actually won them. The Women Longhorns play the No. 5 ranked LSU Tigers on Sunday at 2 p.m. Central. The Longhorns, the Tigers and South Carolina are in a three-way tie for the top spot in the SEC. Should be a good game.
Have a great weekend.
Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
Sign up to receive this in your inbox every week at www.texaspolicy.com/9thandCongress.
Follow me on X @sylvester1630 and follow my podcast, the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.erever you get your podcasts.
Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio in Austin where we discuss who made the list of Winners & Losers for the previous week. But since President Donald Trump was inaugurated and everything is moving at warp speed, a week is a very long time. Lots of things are happening. Here’s who made the list:
Winner: Texas Sen. Brandon Creighton, Gov. Abbott, Lt. Gov. Patrick & Texas Children
The Texas Senate is a notoriously collegial place. Texas senators each represent about a million people, and on most days, they are pointedly respectful of each other’s opinions, regardless of partisan differences. However, this week, just before the final passage of Senate Bill 2, establishing Education Savings Accounts in Texas, Senate Education Chairman Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, finally had to call out his Democrat colleagues for spewing a barrage of recycled lies about his school choice bill, parroting, as he said, “the talking points of the American Federation of Teachers, coming straight from [national teacher union president] Randi Weingarten.” Creighton shook his head incredulously at the Democrats’ hyperbolic allegations that Senate Bill 2 is a “white kids bill,” or a “rich kids bill” in their effort to create doubt and chaos about legislation that will transform public education opportunities for marginalized and minority kids. He asked his Democrat colleagues several times, “what are you fighting for, mediocrity?”
Don’t get me wrong. Creighton remained a gentleman the entire time — that’s who he is and that’s the way they do business in the Senate, but his message was clear. The Democrat senators’ opposition to school choice did not spring from a simple disagreement over policy, because they all want better schools. Instead, their opposition dramatically affirmed the fact that the teachers’ unions own the Democrat party lock, stock, and barrel.
You can listen to Creighton’s no-nonsense remarks here, beginning at the 59 minute mark. If you begin the playback from the beginning in the same link, you can watch many of the Texas Democrat senators — the highest ranking elected Democrats in Texas — stand up and oppose giving Texas parents the right to choose the best school for their children. You can hear them pounding the table and ignoring piles of data showing that states with school choice have better academic outcomes, safer schools, better programs for disabled kids, better civic engagement and improved college readiness. Even though many of them represent districts where mostly failing and under-performing schools are located, they ignored that and, as Creighton said, “toed the party line for the teachers’ unions.” When Senate Bill 2 finally passed, it did not receive one Democrat vote.
I have been around school choice battles in several states for many years, and like Creighton, at some point you can only shake your head at the hypocrisy. Many of the Democrat lawmakers who spoke the loudest against school choice attended private schools themselves, a decision their parents made that may have been key in giving them the education, confidence and skills they needed to become elected leaders. It is inexcusable that they oppose extending that same opportunity to their constituents and their children.
Of course, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is also a winner in passing Senate Bill 2. He’s been working for school choice during his entire time in public office and has passed it out of the Senate six times. Another big winner is Gov. Greg Abbott, who made school choice a priority, campaigned for it all over the state and helped elect a Texas House that is ready to vote for it. When Patrick announced that Senate Bill 2 is now on its way to the Texas House, he made it clear that in Texas, as in Washington, it is time to move at warp speed.
Winner: Marco Rubio Gets Rid of USAID
Secretary of State Marco Rubio took USAID over after the people working there wouldn’t take his calls. His demand seems simple enough — he wants America’s foreign aid funding to be synchronized with our foreign policy.
Since Rubio shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Federalist compiled an outrageous list of insane things it funded including $2 million for a clinic for sex change operations in Guatemala, another couple million for electric cars in Vietnam and meals for al Qaeda-affiliated fighters in Syria. USAID is also one of the biggest funders of BBC Media Action, part of the BBC, in England. Huh? U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is “exceptionally upset” USAID funding is gone, which would indicate shutting it down is a good thing.
However, it is important to remember that while the wacky list of USAID funded things — a transgender opera in Columbia, a DEI program in Serbia and a transgender comic book in Peru — all have to go, the United States should still be out there helping poor countries fight malaria, clean up their water and keep children from starving to death. Nobody opposes that, and I am confident Rubio will move forward with foreign aid that comports with our foreign policy.
Winner: Trump Cancels Legacy Media Subscriptions
In unraveling the USAID spending, there was a lot of hoopla about how much money they were giving to legacy media companies, which caused us conservatives to go crazy. Even though we won the election and even the New York Times admits that most everybody in the country agrees with us, we still have to put up with the legacy media spitting out the same sanctimonious lies now that they were spitting out before the election. If taxpayer dollars are helping keep them afloat, that’s a real outrage.
Trump agrees and he told the General Services Administration to just cancel every subscription and contract with any media company. It’s a good idea that would work well in Texas too. Elected officials fork over thousands of dollars every year to newspapers and digital outfits that traffic in inaccurate information and baseless attacks on conservatives while shilling for progressives. They survive on subscriptions. Stop paying them.
Winner: Scott Turner Will Take Over HUD
Some remember Scott Turner as a former Texas state representative and others remember him as a defensive back for the Denver Broncos, but the Texan has just added Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to his resume. His confirmation hearing was low-key and impressive. There are few issues more pressing than affordable housing, so it’s terrific news that we’ve got a Texan in that job.
Loser: Americans Are Just Not That into Democrats Right now
The latest Quinnipiac Poll found that only 31% of Americans have a positive view of the Democrat Party right now. The same poll found that almost half of Americans, 47%, feel positively about President Trump and Republicans. Democrats seem to have no idea why people don’t like them, and it’s fun to watch them flailing.
Loser: N.J. Gov. Moved Possible Illegal Alien to His Garage
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy also didn’t help Democrat approval ratings this week when he convened a press conference to suggest that the woman who cleans his house might be an illegal alien so he’s moved her into the apartment over his garage. He dared U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to come and get her.
It’s not clear what message he’s sending to the people of New Jersey by taking this action. It’s hard to figure why the governor of the 11th most populous state with a budget of about $60 billion can’t find a legal citizen to clean his house.
As someone who has lived in New Jersey, let me give you a little background on this. The Governor’s Mansion isn’t in the state capitol in Trenton. It is actually in Princeton and it’s called Drumthwacket, but Gov. Murphy doesn’t live there. He lives in a $10 million mansion next to Jon Bon Jovi in Middletown. If you think I am making this up, you can read all about it in the Asbury Park Press.
Loser: Vogue Editorial Criticizing Melania Trump
Sorry to intrude with a fashion alert, but I simply must put Vogue Magazine on the losers list this week for criticizing Melania Trump’s official White House portrait. Speaking mostly in gibberish, the ladies at Vogue apparently didn’t like Melania’s black pantsuit and white blouse. It’s no surprise this ridiculous publication is filled with lefty snobs, but this snub of Melania is over the top. Hillary Clinton also wore a black pants suit for her official portrait when she was first lady. But what really is annoying is that Dr. Jill Biden appeared on the cover of Vogue three times, even though her husband was a one-termer while Melania hasn’t made the cover since her husband became president — and she’s a professional model. Dr. Jill’s last appearance on the cover of Vogue came just a couple of days after Joe blew the debate, demonstrating he was incompetent to run the country. Remember that?
Winner: Trump Bans Men from Women’s Prisons
Trump has barred men who say they are women from federal women’s prisons this week — a move that will undoubtedly increase the safety of women who are incarcerated. In making the move, an amazing statistic came out — 15% of the “women” in federal prison are transgender. Perhaps it’s not that amazing. If a man knows he’s going to go to prison, claiming to be a woman is a smart move to make. Just 1.6% of the population says they are transgender.
Winner: Women Athletes
When President Trump signed another executive order this week banning men from playing in women’s sports, he proclaimed, “The war on women’s sports is over.” He’s right. Women won. Any school or university that continues to allow men who think they are women to participate in women’s sports will lose their federal funding. Trump also warned the Olympic committee that America will not tolerate men in international women’s sports either.
The persistently spineless NCAA immediately announced a “transgender student athlete participation policy change,” that restricts women’s sports to “student-athletes assigned female at birth.” There are some problems with the whole “assigned female at birth” stuff, but, as Trump said, the war is over.
Losers: Texas Doctors Who Do Sex Change Operations
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has stopped three doctors in North Texas from performing sex change operations on children, an important step in shutting down clinic operations that are violating Texas law. There is big money in puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and so-called “transition” surgeries, so it is no surprise that those involved in mutilating children aren’t going away quietly. The attorney general is right to crack down and keep the pressure on them, until these clinics are completely eradicated in Texas.
Loser: CBS Heavily Edited Harris Interview During Campaign
This week, CBS’s “60 Minutes” finally was forced by the Federal Communications Commission to turn over the tape of their interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris. The interview was conducted during the presidential campaign and includes about an hour’s worth of footage, although they aired less than 20 minutes. It is instructive to look at what CBS left out — basically every word salad and stupid answer Harris gave — because it demonstrates how legacy news media slices and dices news reports to manipulate the message.
Winner: Super Bowl Sunday
Forty-one percent of Americans told Gallup that football was their favorite sport. Baseball and basketball, which are number two and three, don’t even come close, at 10% and 9%. Americans are football people, which is great because on Sunday, President Trump will become the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl Game. Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is being kind of snooty about it, saying the president can do whatever he wants, but the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback and former Texas Tech star and East Texas native Patrick Mahomes says he’s excited because “it’s always cool to play in front of a sitting president, someone who is at the top position in our country.” Even the Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce calls it an honor, despite the fact that his girlfriend was a Kamala supporter. It’s gonna be fun.
Happy Super Bowl Sunday!
Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
Sign up to receive this in your inbox every week at www.texaspolicy.com/9thandCongress.
Follow me on X @sylvester1630 and follow my podcast, the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.ever you get your podcasts.erever you get your podcasts.
Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio in Austin where we discuss who made the list of Winners & Losers for the previous week. President Donald Trump’s makes it clear daily that he intends to change pretty much everything, which gets him on the top of the winners list again this week. Meanwhile, now that he’s gone, we are getting daily revelations that former President Joe Biden’s policies were even bigger losers than we thought. Lots of winning and losing happening in Texas, too.
Winner: Trump Calling Out DEI on the Plane Crash
President Trump was already poised to make the winners’ list this week with his statement that its time to get rid of the income tax, which is a great discussion starter, particularly for all of Texas’ “Fair Tax” fans. Onlookers, like CNN, went nuts when its own polling found that Trump’s approval rating is the highest ever recorded in the history of approval ratings. Same thing at the New York Times, which was shocked to learn that many of President Trump’s policies are even more popular than he is. In fact, 89% of Americans believe that any illegal alien who has a criminal record should be deported.
In yet another demonstration of straight talk in government, President Trump shocked reporters at the press conference after the tragic crash of a passenger plane over the Potomac River on Wednesday night by suggesting that the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs employed by the federal government could have been a contributing factor in the accident. Predictably, left-wingers, like former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, called his comments “disgusting,” and the NAACP accused him of “sowing hatred and falsehood.” Headlines excoriated Trump for discussing blame before there was an investigation, but when a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter crashes into an American Airlines flight on a clear night just outside the nation’s capital, it raises questions and, as the president said, pointing the finger at DEI as a possible factor is just common sense.
We don’t know why the helicopter crashed into the jet after being told the plane was there, but as we are ruling out possible causes, Americans should be able to be confident that both pilots were the best and the brightest, after being certified that they have the aptitude and the skills developed in uncompromising training that has prepared them for virtually any dangerous eventuality that might occur.
Unfortunately, one of the many tragedies of DEI is that Americans no longer have that confidence. When American airline companies and the military announce they have made DEI a priority so they can break down the “male bastion of aviation,” it is worrisome.
I am a big fan breaking down male bastions, but like most Americans, I don’t care at all about the race or gender of the person piloting any plane I’m flying on. I just want to know that certification standards have not been compromised in order to accommodate diversity quotas.
That’s why President Trump introduced the topic of DEI as the investigation of the crash begins, even though other factors may be revealed as causes of the crash. Americans know that DEI programs, which lower standards and even get rid of them altogether, in order to increase “diversity,” is a risk to our safety. Trump wants to let Americans know that he understands that too.
Winner: Do No Harm Exposes DEI in Medical Profession
Americans also don’t care about the race or gender of the doctor they are seeing, but, again, they want to be assured that they meet the same high academic standards that have always been required of physicians. Do No Harm, a national organization focused on eliminating DEI in the medical profession, revealed again this week that increasingly, in medical schools across the country, that isn’t happening. Looking at data from the Association of American Medical Colleges, they found that in the most recent class of students admitted to medical schools, “the average Asian and white matriculants respectively had to score in the 89th and 84th percentile on the MCAT test, which the AAMC oversees to be admitted. The average black matriculant applicant scored in the 68th percentile, while the average Hispanic scored in the 66th percentile.”
This data had not changed from the previous year, before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that universities must use merit, not race, when determining which students to admit to medical schools. Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, founder of Do No Harm, was my guest on the Sherry Sylvester Show this week discussing the impact of DEI and other issues. Listen to the interview here.
Winner: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Directs State Agencies to End DEI
DEI programs are not only ubiquitous in the federal government, they are also riddled throughout state agencies in Texas. Today, Gov. Greg Abbott ended all that, declaring that DEI programs “deviate from constitutional principles and deny diverse thought.” He directed state agencies to shut them down.
Texas DEI workers will undoubtedly be marching shortly, but as they gather their outrage, it is important to remember that DEI is based on the belief that white supremacy is the predominant view driving America and that racism permeates every American institution and, indeed, everything Americans do. According to the ideology of DEI, because slavery is America’s original sin, we are doomed to live forever in a country divided into two groups—the oppressors and oppressed. The oppressed get hiring preferences. The oppressors do not.
DEI is a multi-billion dollar industry, so it will not go away quickly. Last week, President Trump fired hundreds of DEI workers and cancelled $450 million in DEI contracts.
Winner: Texas Partnership with ICE on Deportations
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is also a winner for ordering state agencies to assist the Trump administration in deporting people who are in the country illegally, starting with criminals. The left has been stoking fear everywhere, which is why it was refreshing to see Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar tell CNN that he had spoken with administration officials and learned there were no plans to go door to door, church to school, checking students and teachers. Salazar said his goal was to “bring down the fear level” in San Antonio and across the country by sharing this information. Good for him, but it was hardly a secret. Trump officials had made it clear when they were beginning the deportation operation that they were going after “the worst first.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston is pushing the fear narrative, telling Houston residents that they do not have to answer questions from immigration officials. She is following the lead of the Acacia Center for Justice in Washington, D.C. which insists that ICE is exploiting black and brown people and that “no illegal immigrant should be detained.” Acacia is funded by a $769 million federal contract.
Loser: National Report Card Shows America’s Kids are Losing Ground
The latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores are back and the results aren’t good. Fully 40% of 4th graders in America are reading below basic levels and in 8th grade math, and the distance between the highest scores and the lowest is larger than it has ever been. Scores in Texas follow the same downward trend as we continue to see no recovery from the dramatic learning loss of COVID-19.
Winner: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s Legislative Priorities
Every legislative session, Texans eagerly await the release of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s legislative priorities to see the roadmap for what is going to be accomplished in the new legislative session. The failing NAEP scores add one more talking point to the case for passing Senate Bill 2, to provide Education Savings Accounts so every Texas parent can choose the best school for their child. Patrick predicted the Texas Senate would pass the school choice bill out on Wednesday if Gov. Abbott makes it an emergency item.
There’s lots of other great stuff on the list this year including providing property tax relief, reforming bail, ending drag queen story hours and taxpayer funded lobbying.
Winner: CIA Finally Admits COVID-19 Came from a Lab Leak
They have known it for a while, but now that Biden is gone, the CIA is admitting that COVID-19 most likely originated from a lab leak. A lot of people have known this for years, of course, but take a couple minutes and watch what Jon Stewart said about it in 2021, as Stephen Colbert tries to cut him off. Oldie but goodie that is always good for grins.
Loser: Biden Adds Almost $2 Trillion in Regulation Costs
Another disturbing thing that happened on Biden’s way out the door is that an internal audit revealed that the former president added $1.8 billion in new regulations to slow down the economic growth and generally stifle our lives. Most of the new regulations were in the Environmental Protection Agency. President Trump has already unraveled most of these regulations, and you can bet he’ll get all of them.
Winner: Best Moment of the Week – Trump’s New Spokesmouth
Karoline Leavitt is the youngest person ever to serve as a presidential press secretary. She demonstrated this week that she is more than ready for the job, making it clear to the old legacy media that there is a new sheriff in town. So-called new media, including Breitbart and Axios, are now sitting in the front of the room, and the Associated Press did not get the first question. She didn’t have a binder, she didn’t promise to circle back and she never said “I don’t have anything for you on that,” a phrase we heard a million times from her predecessor Karine Jean-Pierre. This is going to be fun.
One week out from the Super Bowl, I am trying hard to work up some enthusiasm.
Have a great weekend.
Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
Sign up to receive this in your inbox every week at www.texaspolicy.com/9thandCongress.
Follow me on X @sylvester1630 and follow my podcast, the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio in Austin where we discuss who made the list of Winners & Losers for the previous week. After Donald J. Trump’s Second Inauguration on Monday changed so many things, he’s got dozens of winners. The Texas Legislature has finished all of its ceremonials and is up and running too, so there’s lots going on, no matter where you look. Here’s who made the list:
Winner: Donald Trump’s List of Immediate Changes
In the ‘70s, everybody agreed that the “medium is the message,” and Trump’s a boomer who clearly gets that. He is the medium, and the message he delivered is that American exceptionalism is back. You could see that in everything from the guests on the inaugural stage, which included legendary innovators like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, to his take-no-prisoners inaugural address. The contrast of the winners and losers on the inaugural stage also amplified Trump’s message. The somber faces of President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama sent a clear message—their dark, divisive vision of America has been rejected.
In terms of Trump’s Day One initiatives, it’s hard to rank the list, but my personal favorite is the president’s declaration that “henceforth, the official policy of the United States government is that there are only two genders: male and female.” (ICYMI, see my op-ed “Gender is Over! Sex is Back!”) If you’ve forgotten a few of Trump’s initiatives since Monday, here’s the list from his speech—all winners.
Winner: School Choice Gets a Billion in State Budget
The time has come for Education Savings Accounts in Texas. Most Texans have supported school choice for years, and Gov. Greg Abbott has proved again and again that it is a top priority for him. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick proudly noted at the State Senate swearing in ceremony last week that senators have passed parental choice legislation five times. This week Texas lawmakers put their money where their mouths are by allocating a billion dollars for the program in both the Texas House and the Texas Senate’s proposed budgets.
Loser: National Cathedral Bishop Embarrasses Christians
In what can only be viewed as a pitch to get a guest slot on ABC’s “The View,” Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Washington, launched into a left-wing harangue targeting President Trump at a prayer service in the National Cathedral. In lecturing Trump, Budde insisted that because of his policies, illegal immigrants and so-called “trans people” are living in fear. Trump has been clear that people who entered the country illegally must be held accountable, but if “trans people” are living in fear, it is because people like Budde are fueling it.
It is notable that President Trump did not ask Budde to apologize to him; he demanded that she apologize to the entire country for her outrageous partisan flag waving.
Bishop Budde should look at what is going on in Britain (the mother country of her church) and the rest of Europe where health providers have switched to counseling for children who believe they are the opposite sex. Puberty blockers and sex change operations have been discontinued there because they have shown to be ineffective and harmful in treating people suffering from gender dysphoria. Trump is proposing the same. If Budde truly wants to care for her flock, she should stop stoking paranoia and division and look at how to really help people.
It is ironic that earlier this month former President Obama and President Trump were seen talking and laughing together at former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral at the National Cathedral. Some real grace shown there on both sides—Budde should have been paying attention.
Full disclosure, I am an Episcopalian, one of many this week who were embarrassed by Bishop Budde’s antics.
Winner: Agriculture Secretary Nominee Brooke Rollins—A No Brainer
Both Texas senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz introduced Trump’s nominee to be U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, as an appointment whose confirmation should be a “no brainer.” Throughout frequently intense questioning by the Senate Agriculture Committee, Rollins demonstrated that the Texas senators were absolutely right. Because of her broad policy range and depth, particularly on agricultural issues, trade and labor policies, even cynical Democrat bomb-throwers like California Sen. Adam Schiff and Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock didn’t lay a glove on her. Rollins, of course, is the former CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation and she did us all proud.
Loser: PBS Starts Elon Musk Nazi Salute Lie
Normally these crazy stories come off fringy social media threads, but the smear campaign that Elon Musk delivered a Nazi salute at an Inauguration Day event seems to have been put out there by PBS, who delivered it with a straight face. Four days later, it is still running in the news cycle even though both the Anti-Defamation League and Benjamin Netanyahu have called it bogus. Netanyahu called Musk “a great friend to Israel [who] visited after the October 7 massacre in which Hamas terrorists committed the worst atrocity against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
Still, U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman, D-NY, said Musk’s gesture “can only be interpreted as a Seig Heil salute that is synonymous with Nazi support for Hitler,” and the press is still replete with stories debating whether Musk actually delivered a Nazi salute, with most leaning toward the affirmative. In a background story, the New York Times just released a thousand word report on the history of the Nazi salute.
Jon Stewart also suggested that Eric Trump made some kind of Hitler hand gesture during the Inauguration. A few questions: What is wrong with these people? Do they have any idea who Americans are? Do they really think that broad support for Trump indicates any support for Hitler? Finally, why is the media treating this stupidity as if it is actual news?
Winner: Abbott Presents Bill for Border Security to Federal Government
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent a bill to Congress this week for the $11 billion that the state of Texas has spent doing the job the federal government is supposed to do—securing the border. In his invoice, Abbott included the cost of busing illegal immigrants to blue state sanctuary cities, a move that helped the country finally understand the impact thousands and thousands of illegal aliens can have on communities, services, crime and quality of life. On behalf of Texas taxpayers, thank you!
Loser: Joe Biden’s Last Minute Pardons
In what may have been his last official act, former President Joe Biden issued a host of pardons as he went out the door on Monday including reprieves to both his brothers, his sister and their spouses. Perhaps to distract the focus away from the obvious financial implications of the family pardons which, like the one delivered to his son Hunter, exonerate his siblings from everything they’ve ever done or will do, he threw in some political players as well.
He pardoned COVID-19 czar Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley, former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney and every member of the House Committee that investigated January 6. The pardons mean that the recipients can’t be punished, but they can still be investigated and while we are all tired of hearings, we must push forward and get the facts on every one of these people—family and all. History needs to know.
Winner: Dept. of Government Efficiency (DOGE)
DOGE head Elon Musk may have identified a future loser, this week, the penny. Musk just announced that it costs about 3 cents to mint a 1 cent penny, which he says added up to $179 million in 2023. Presumably, this is the first step toward moving us to a cashless country, but it will take a while. In the meantime, this is a great issue for Musk and for Trump. Virtually everyone in the country will have an opinion on what to do about the penny, and the new administration will undoubtedly come up with all kinds of ways to make sure those opinions are heard.
Texas will have a number of strong voices on the DOGE Committee in the U.S. House to help jump start the legislative effort. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson appointed four Texans to serve there—U.S. Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Prosper, Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Flower Mound, Rep. Greg Casar, D-Austin and Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas. The always outspoken Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia will chair the committee, so it should be fun.
What Ohio State’s Championship was Worth
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Ohio State Buckeyes would be worth almost $2 billion if the team were sold on the open market. The report comes from a finance professor at Indiana, but it doesn’t look like there’s any built-in pro-Indiana bias since his team didn’t make the top 25 list.
Texas came in second to Ohio State, with its value estimated at $1.9 billion. Texas A&M came in at $1 billion even, ninth on the list. There has been talk of private equity entering the college football world for a while. Now that we are in that long boring stretch of empty time, analyzing recruitment and transfers and watching the rebuild for next year’s college football season, we can also ponder the possible impact private equity might have on the game.
If I missed one of your winners and losers for the week, email me.
Have a great weekend.
Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
Sign up to receive this in your inbox every week at www.texaspolicy.com/9thandCongress.
Follow me on X @sylvester1630 and follow my podcast, the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin where we discuss who made the list of Winners & Losers for the week. The Texas Legislature is officially sworn in, the House has selected a speaker and we have 72 more hours left of President Joe Biden. We are going to miss him on Winners & Losers.
According to the last polls taken this week, the Biden administration is viewed as one of the biggest losers of all time. The latest CNN poll found that only 36% of Americans approve of the way Biden has handled the presidency. And 64% view the Biden presidency as an overall failure.
Gallup has Biden’s approval at 39% and they show that under his leadership Americans believe the country has lost ground on virtually every issue that matters. Sixty percent of Americans believe America has failed on the economy, reining in the national debt, immigration, terrorism, trade, national defense and maintaining our position in the world. We frequently say we are a divided nation, but we are not equally divided when it comes to Joe Biden—it’s more like a third who support him versus two-thirds who don’t.
Biden’s awful “farewell to the nation” speech on Wednesday night makes it clear he has no idea why he (and Kamala) lost the election. He actually doubled-down on his losing messages while trying to get people to believe that Democrats were beaten by oligarchs and tech moguls with lots of money, forgetting that their team spent millions more than Trump.
Unfortunately, this isn’t all going to end in 72 hours. Much of the Democrats’ ridiculous questioning of Trump’s cabinet nominees this past week as well as their votes in the House come out of the same playbook.
Winner: Attorney General Nomination Pam Bondi’s Confirmation Testimony
All of Trump’s nominees did pretty well this week during their confirmation hearings. Rubio was exemplary, but my favorite response came from Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi who faced down crazed Democrat zealot Sen. Richard Blumenthal who tried to inject a litmus test into the hearing: “You have to be able to say that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. … You have to be able to say that January 6 insurrectionists who committed violence shouldn’t be pardoned,” Blumenthal said.
Bondi didn’t buy it and she slapped him down: “No, I don’t. … I’m not going to sit up here and say anything that I need to say to get confirmed by this body. I don’t have to say anything.”
Like Biden, Blumenthal and the other malicious senators who questioned the nominees didn’t get the message Americans sent on Nov. 5—they care about the economy, the border and crime—they don’t care about Jan. 6 or the 2020 election.
Winner: House Bill Banning Men in Women’s Sports
After the November election, it should not be difficult for any elected official to support a mandate that men should not be allowed to play on women’s sports teams. In fact, 69% of Americans say they oppose boys in girls’ sports and that percentage is increasing.
Still, only two Democrats (both Texans) voted in support of the Protection of Women and Girls Sports Act—Congressmen Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez. The bill will prohibit federal funds from going to schools that let boys who think they are girls participate on the girls’ team.
In a desperate search for some kind of moral high ground, the rest of their Democrat colleagues managed to contort themselves into crazyville, suggesting the legislation would lead to genital inspections by sexual predators. Hard to figure how they got to that. The wording of the legislation is clear—your sex on your birth certificate determines which team you can play on. Apparently, House Democrats weren’t paying attention to what happened to the last public official who championed “they/them” over us.
Winner: Ceasefire Agreement Could be a Winner
But we’ll have to wait and see. Getting some of the hostages out is a huge victory, but Hamas is notorious for violating these agreements and Israel is right to be more than a little suspicious. However, there’s no need to get into the debate over whether Biden or Trump deserves the credit for the deal—it’s not debatable. Trump absolutely did it with his “hell to pay” promise. If Biden could have gotten it done sooner, why didn’t he?
Winner: Texas Gets $27 Billion from Fossil Fuel
Texas oil and gas producers this week announced that the state received $27 billion in royalties from the fossil fuel industry last year—about $75 million a day, to support schools, public safety and essential services. Speaking to the massive forces pushing to shut down the fossil fuel industry both in Texas and the world, Texas made it clear that here we see fossil fuels as an asset, not a liability. Since the royalty subsidies began in 2007, they have contributed $275 billion to state coffers.
This week, Texas also got the announcement that Texas has a $24 billion budget surplus—making Texas taxpayers winners after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick reiterated his commitment to making property tax relief a top priority for the surplus funds.
Loser: California Again
Apparently, even the devastation of the wildfires has not changed the progressive “climate change, open border” delusions in California. As the fires were still burning, they doubled the amount of money they will spend to “Trump proof” the state against the new administration’s policies. California lawmakers slapped down $50 million, including $25 million to provide lawyers to help residents who are about to be deported.
State Senate Budget Chairman, Democrat Scott Weiner, said California faces two massive challenges, the wildfires and the Trump administration, which is threatening to deport residents who are here illegally. Seriously?
Gov. Gavin Newsom did announce that he is rolling back the massive permit requirements from California Environmental Quality and the California Coastal Act that routinely delay building projects for years. Local government regulations will still be in place so it remains to be seen if enough Californians get that the hellish bureaucracy that they have created not only prevented government from taking steps to prevent the fires, it could also prevent residents from being able to rebuild and recover.
Winner: Mark Zuckerberg Again — It’s the Vibe Shift
After I put Zuckerberg on the winner’s list last week, several people, mostly men, told me that that Zuckerberg is faking his born-again anti-wokeness. They insist he’s not really one of us and he doesn’t believe what he’s saying. My response to that is, “so what?” It doesn’t matter. Getting rid of DEI programs at Meta and on all his platforms is not simply ending the program, it is abandoning DEI’s ugly core mission. Meta had diversity-based hiring and recruitment wired into everything they do. They got all their materials and vendors from “diversity-based” sources and they had rigid quotas on virtually everything linked to racial and gender identity. Zuckerberg says all that has to go. As we have seen in higher education in Texas that is easier said than done, but the first step is to say it and now Zuckerberg has.
Granted, he may just be courting Trump. He put up a million for Trump’s inauguration and added Dana White, CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship, to his Board of Directors, but again, “so what if he’s courting Trump?” Like his announcement last week that he’s dropping Facebook fact checkers and moving the monitoring operation to Texas, Zuck’s changes represent what has been called the biggest “vibe shift” since Trump’s re-election in November. Whether he’s truly seen the light or just pretending, it will be hard to roll it back. Others will follow.
Loser: Texas A&M’s Trip to Chicago
University leaders across the state have repeatedly assured the Legislature they are fully on board with Senate Bill 17, passed last session, which prohibits DEI programs and activities that divide students on the basis of race and gender. Still, it is not uncommon for news stories like this to pop up revealing that Texas A&M was recruiting black, Hispanic, and Native American students to attend a conference in Chicago where white and Asian students were not eligible to participate. When asked about it on Twitter, Gov. Greg Abbott became an instant winner for immediately tweeting:
“Hell, no. It’s against Texas law and violates the U.S. Constitution. It will be fixed immediately or the president will soon be gone.”
Texas A&M President Mark Walsh quickly backed down after Abbott’s shout out but the controversy will undoubtedly continue. DEI is deeply embedded in every cranny of university life and culture. It will take vigilance and commitment to finally root it out.
Winner: Jane Nelson Gavels in the Texas House
After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, the Texas House finally elected a new speaker on Tuesday, under the watchful eye of Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson. Nelson, who served in the Texas Senate for over 30 years, brought the same precision, tone and grace to the proceedings that she used while chairing the powerful Senate Finance Committee for over a decade. Nelson reminded the lawmakers in the lower chamber that they are all Texans—all family, and they need to take care of each other. We’ll be watching to see how that works out—but it was great to see a strong, competent woman in the chair.
Winner: Monday, January 20th
Hundreds of Texans will be in Washington, D.C. on Monday to watch Donald J. Trump be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. If you are staying home, you can see them on TV. The Lone Star State loves Trump and as the biggest red state on the map, lots of Texans are naturally called to represent.
There’s also a big football game Monday night. Ohio State has the line, but I’m betting on Notre Dame. It’s a God thing.
Winner: Rumor that Coach Prime is Going to the Cowboys
Who knows, but this Sports Illustrated report sure makes it sound like it’s a real thing.
Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
Sign up to receive this in your inbox every week at www.texaspolicy.com/9thandCongress.
Follow me on X @sylvester1630 and follow my podcast, the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Winners & Losers Digital is back for 2025! Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin where we discuss who made the list of Winners and who turned up on the Losers list for the previous week. Now that the ball has dropped and we are in the final countdown for the opening of the 89th Legislative Session in Texas and the swearing in of the once and future President is about to take place, it’s time to take a look at who made it—and who did not—in the first full week of January.
Loser: California, its Governor and the whole Progressive, Left-Coast Model
The tragic fires in California may not have been preventable, but they were predictable—the Santa Ana winds blow every year. California is a big, rich state and it should have had a plan. Unfortunately, Gov. Gavin Newsom was too busy working on legislation to “protect” California from the policies of the incoming Trump administration to attend to the critical issue of wildfire mitigation. Forest underbrush wasn’t cleared, controlled burns weren’t set and there wasn’t enough water available. Current estimates are now as high as $150 billion to build back and since California is one of the most difficult places in the country to build anything because of onerous government red tape, you can double or triple that. Biden promised that the U.S. Government would pick up 100% of the firefighting and cleanup tab for the first 180 days (because California has no money, of course). Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pointed out that the media would absolutely hold Republican leaders accountable for such a massive disaster failure, but so far, Newsom and other California leaders are not taking much heat from the press.
Winner: Women’s Sports & Women’s Rights
Yesterday’s ruling by the U.S. District Court of Eastern Kentucky which pulverized President Joe Biden’s Title IX rules change was a big victory for women’s sports and women’s rights. Chief Judge Danny C. Reeves pulled no punches, calling the proposed rules changes “unlawful.” Reeves was crystal clear, saying there is nothing in Title IX to suggest it means anything other than to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex. He said the idea of twisting that principle to include gender identity “turns Title IX on its head” and to use it to open locker rooms and bathrooms to both sexes “makes no sense.”
Finally, the ruling states that requiring teachers to use whatever pronouns their students dictate—like “they and them” instead of “he and she” clearly violates the free speech principles in the First Amendment. This ruling is going to make a big difference in our educational institutions and, hopefully, in the culture.
Winner: Bring Hollywood to Texas
Without capitalizing on the tragedy of the people of Southern California, it is important to note that a coalition of actors and other movie workers were already pressing the Texas Legislature to allocate more funds for film production in the Lone Star State. Their goal is to “move Hollywood to Texas.” And as Matthew McConaughey says in their latest message to the legislators, “if you don’t like what Hollywood’s been dishing, let’s take over the kitchen.” If you haven’t seen their latest spot featuring McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Dennis Quaid, Billy Bob Thornton and Renee Zellweger, it’s called “True to Texas – Let’s Bring Production Home.” You can watch it here.
Winner: Trump’s Idea to Buy Greenland—Texas Should Do It!
Trump is an ideas guy and his going after Greenland is one of his best. He’s right that Greenland is needed for national security and it’s a strategic source of rare minerals. Unfortunately, Washington kills good ideas. Congress will stall, Democrats will push back, crazies in Europe and the United States will weigh in and rile up the Greenlanders and it will all be tied up in some bogus international court for years.
It makes more sense for Texas to buy Greenland. It will be faster and more efficient. Think about what happened at the southern border when Trump was first elected. He wanted to fix the problem, but he ran into all kinds of resistance from sanctuary cities and the Washington swamp. Meanwhile, Texas simply outlawed sanctuary cities, deployed hundreds of border patrol officers, fenced off the biggest entry points, put buoys in the river and substantially stemmed the illegal migrant flow.
Texas could pick up Greenland without much drama or bureaucratic red tape and it won’t cost much when you consider the almost immediate return on investment.
Texas could also remind the Greenlanders that we actually know what it is like to transition from being an independent country to a state. We can assure them they can retain their own identity, like we do, and we can help them set up a “keep Greenland Greenland” campaign.
Trump would still get the credit, of course. It was his winning idea.
Winner: Gov. Greg Abbott Endorsed “Gulf of Texas” Idea
Along the same lines, in an X tweet this week, Gov. Abbott amended President-elect Trump’s suggestion that the Gulf of Mexico should be renamed the “Gulf of America” to “Gulf of Texas” which makes more sense. We’ve all suffered through left-wing name changes like calling Columbus Day “Indigenous People’s Day,” so it’s time that normal people make some suggestions — a “Gulf of Texas” is a great start.
Winner: Zuckerberg Moving Content Moderators to Texas
Meta founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced this week that he is laying off fact checkers and will be employing a “Community Notes” system like X so that anyone can add comments if they think something inaccurate has been posted. Zuckerberg said the new system will be monitored in Texas because he thinks he’s less likely to get biased workers here than at his HQ in California.
All Meta’s soon-to-be laid-off fact checking groups denounced the move, insisting that they are arbiters of the truth and the only thing that stands between us and complete anarchy. But Politifact’s annual “Lie of the Year” award demonstrates the problem. Readers could select from a variety of “lies” from 2024—all but two were uttered by conservatives. The lie that won was Trump’s statement about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio eating pets. The lie that was not on the list was the claim by Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, that Joe Biden was absolutely fit to run for re-election. That seems like a “pants on fire” moment.
Loser: Justin Trudeau and His Left-Wing World View
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced this week that he will be stepping down before Canadians make a move to push him out. Trudeau began his final decline in 2022 when he employed emergency powers to go after truckers who were protesting the country’s extreme COVID mandates. Trudeau also authorized freezing the bank accounts of truckers who opposed his policies.
Most recently, Trudeau chided Americans, saying the failure to elect Kamala Harris was a setback for women’s rights. President-elect Trump has suggested making Canada a 51st state, but Trudeau has left it in such a mess that we’d be better off without it. Canadian conservatives are running almost 30 points ahead right now. Let them take over and fix it.
Winner: McDonald’s Ends DEI Programs
McDonald’s is the latest big company to announce it has ditched its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs and is re-focused on what is good for business, customers and workers. America First Legal and conservative activist Robby Starbuck, who has pushed a dozen other big companies to abandon DEI, have had McDonald’s in their sites for a while. As companies abandon DEI, which research shows has failed to provide any positive benefit, the big losers are the multi-billion dollar DEI industry and extortion groups like the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index which forces companies to follow policies based on racial and sexual identity, regardless of their impact on the business or workers. It took a long time for the phony ideology of DEI to become embedded in our culture and it is going to take a long time to weed it out—but Americans don’t like it and it is time for DEI to go.
Winner: Golden-Cheeked Warblers in the Texas Hill Country
My colleagues at TPPF began a legal battle a decade ago to remove the Golden-Cheeked Warbler, which lives in the Texas Hill Country, from the endangered species list. This week, the U.S. Dept. of Fish and Wildlife announced the warbler was no longer in need of an endangered designation, because its migratory patterns are expanding and it is generally thriving. The U.S. Department of the Interior makes the final decision on whether to keep the endangered designation, but TPPF’s legal pushing has helped to finally get the process moving. TPPF can also take the credit for the announcement by Black Rock this week that they have dropped out of the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative, a program that pushes ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) policies that block investment in fossil fuels in the name of fighting climate change. TPPF’s Life Powered program has been working for years to fight ESG and give Americans the truth about energy issues. It’s working.
Loser: The Presidential Medal of Freedom is Not What it Used to Be
Many conservatives were rightly outraged this week when President Joe Biden gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to George Soros, who shares much of the blame for the increase in violence and crime to American cities after he spent the last two decades bankrolling district attorney candidates who wouldn’t put people in jail. Biden also gave the medal to Hillary Clinton, because she was the “first woman nominated for president on a major party ticket.”
The Presidential Medal of Freedom was given to Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mother Teresa, but the standards seem to have dropped a bit. Granted, civil rights warrior Fannie Lou Hamer got the award posthumously this year—the Biden team undoubtedly did not know she was an outspoken opponent of abortion—but so did clothes designer Ralph Lauren and Annie Wintour, the editor of Vogue, who organizes the annual Met Gala, a big lefty get-together in New York City. Former U.S. Senator and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy also received the award, but apparently Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Trump’s designee to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services, was not invited to the ceremony.
For the folks in the Biden White House, freedom does just seem to be “another word for nothing left to lose.”
Big Game Tonight!
By the time we are back here next week, we will know whether the University of Texas will be playing Notre Dame in Atlanta on January 20. Let’s not say anything about that now—you know how the Longhorns are and we don’t want to do anything to jinx it. Have a great weekend!
Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
Sign up to receive this in your inbox every week at www.texaspolicy.com/9thandCongress.
Follow me on X @sylvester1630 and follow my podcast, the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.er you get your podcasts.
Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin to pick the week’s top Winners & Losers. This is the last list before Election Day and the only thing we know for sure is not to believe anyone who says they are confident about the outcome on Tuesday night.
What we do know is that data guru Derek Ryan reports that 7.5 million people had voted in Texas as of Wednesday. Almost 2.5 million of those voters have a Republican history while 1.6 have a Democrat voting history.
Here’s who made the list this week:
Winner: Texas Women Voters
Of those 7.5 million Texas early voters, 52% are women, while 44% are men, indicating an eight point gender gap. Democrats view this as a positive sign for them because they believe women who vote are protesting the Republican position on abortion, but Republicans see these women voters as a good sign, noting that polls show the economy, border security and crime issues are their priorities. The GOP also believes that their closing attack ads that highlight Vice President Kamala Harris’ support for the transgender agenda—attacks Harris has not responded to—will persuade women voters to vote for Trump. Polls make it clear that the transgender agenda is a losing issue.
Winner: The White House Office of Stenography
Ann Sands, Director of the White House Office of Stenography, chided the White House Press Office this week for doctoring the official transcript of President Joe Biden’s recent remarks to make it appear he did not call supporters of former President Donald Trump “garbage.” According to Sands, the move by the Press Office to release a doctored transcript was a “breach of protocol and spoliation of transcript integrity between Stenography and the Press office.” Sands noted that the Press Office can withhold official transcripts, but they cannot change them.
Not only did I not know that “spoliation” was a word, I had lost hope that there were any bureaucrats left in Washington who possessed the kind of ethics and vigilance that Sands exhibited this week. Her final plea to the White House Press Office was an admonition that they have given an official transcript to the American public that is different from what will be placed in the National Archives. The country is lucky to have someone with a work ethic like this who is, literally, taking notes and has a larger perspective than next week’s election.
Loser: Insulting Voters, Part 1
Former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle spent the last week attacking Black men for supporting former President Trump. The former president has repeatedly noted that a decline in African-American support for Harris “seems to be more pronounced with the brothers.” To win them over, Obama told black men they were probably sexist and not comfortable with a woman president.
Insulting people to get them to vote for you hasn’t worked for Democrats in the past. After Hillary Clinton was defeated in 2016, Michelle Obama accused women who voted against Clinton—and millions did—of self-hatred. “You don’t like your voice, you like the thing you are told to like.” Insults usually don’t work if you are trying to get someone to like you.
Loser: Insulting Voters, Part 2
Almost as big as Biden’s “garbage” insult was Texan Mark Cuban’s slam against Trump this week saying “you never see him around strong, intelligent women” — denigrating not only Trump’s wife Melania, but dozens of women who have worked and continue to work with the former president. The backlash has been massive.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders and former Texas Public Policy Foundation CEO Brooke Rollins, who now heads the America First Policy Institute, have both called the Trump White House the most women friendly in history. Sanders notes that she was the first working mother to ever serve as White House Press Secretary and Rollins, who was rearing young children when she served as Trump’s Domestic Policy Advisor, has frequently described how the former president made sure her work for him did not interfere with her caring for her children and family.
Winner: Pictures worth a Thousand Words
One of the most important rules of political communication is “show it, don’t say it.” The contrast of these two images with Vice President Harris who made a speech in front of the White House this week, makes that point vividly clear.
Former President Donald Trump dons an orange reflector vest and rides in a garbage truck
Former President Trump does a shift at McDonalds
Loser: Puberty Blocking Drugs
The New York Times reported this week that a doctor who prescribes puberty blockers for children has completed a $10 million taxpayer funded study that shows the powerful drugs have no impact on the mental health of the child, despite being touted as essential to prevent suicide. Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy says she will not release the report because she believes it will be “weaponized” by people who oppose giving puberty blockers to children.
The “people who oppose giving puberty blockers to children” is just about everyone. Recent polling shows that almost 70% of Americans do not want children subjected to cross-sex hormones or mutilating surgeries in the name of changing their gender.
TPPF championed legislation last session to end this hideous practice in Texas. Importantly, most European countries, where these programs began, have abandoned them too, because, at best they don’t work and at worst, they are extremely harmful. It’s not exactly clear how a trans advocate doctor can withhold a report taxpayers paid for, but this is one more piece to add to the huge pile of evidence that the trans-agenda is not good for children and it is time for the country to move on.
Winner: Photo Voter ID
So far, nobody in Texas has complained that they are required to show a photo ID in order to vote, and the latest Gallup Poll shows that almost 80% of Americans believe it is a good idea. Democrats, including those in Texas, continue to insist that requiring a photo ID to vote is an attempt to suppress the vote.
Democrat states like California make sure no one can accuse them of voter suppression. According to the California Secretary of State’s Office, “in most cases you will not be required to show identification” in order to vote. If you are voting for the first time, you simply have to prove your address—an old utility bill will work, but no ID is needed.
My colleague, Chuck DeVore, joined me on the Sherry Sylvester Show this week and we discussed whether America should keep the Electoral College or elect the president by the popular vote. One of the arguments Chuck made against using the popular votes is that states don’t monitor who can vote in the same way. You can listen to the podcast here.
Winner: How About those Dodgers
They wrapped it up in five games after an amazing comeback, and now it’s in the history books.
Losers: New York Yankees fans
The two Yankee fans who ripped the ball out of Mookie Betts’ glove in Game 4 were beyond disheartening. In this election year, in our polarized country, sports has been an oasis for everyone, a mostly politics free zone, starting with the Olympics this summer and rolling into the terrific college football season we are having this year. Sports has been a place where we scream for our teams and relish the competition, without the vitriol that currently permeates too much of our lives. Those Yankee fans, like the UT fans who threw garbage on the field the other week, bring ugliness into one of the only refuges of shared community we have left. It has to stop.
Speaking of the Longhorns, they have a bye this week. The now No. 10 ranked Texas Aggies will take on the South Caroline Gamecocks at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow night.
Have a great weekend.
Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
Sign up to receive this in your inbox every week at www.texaspolicy.com/9thandCongress.
Follow me on X @sylvester1630 and follow my podcast, the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin to pick the week’s top Winners & Losers. We are now sliding down the final 10 day countdown to Election Day as we try to discern what the long lines of people standing outside polling locations—at least where I live in San Antonio—are really thinking. As the final battle rages, here’s who made the list this week:
Winner: So far, GOP Early Voters
Derek Ryan is the Texas guy who analyzes who votes in Texas elections. He’s not a pollster or a spin guy, he just looks at who has actually voted and links them to their primary voting history. Ryan is a Republican but he is respected by both sides and, amazingly, even the Texas media, which spends lots of time every four years pushing the narrative that Texas is turning blue, or Texas will be turning blue, or, Texas is probably already blue, but Republicans won’t let the “real people” vote. Ryan doesn’t bother with any of that. He just does the math. His latest report reveals that 2,833,623 Texans voted in the first three days of Early Voting.
And 1,102,052 of those voters are people who have previously only voted in Republican primary elections. Another 715,180 are people who have only voted in Democrat primaries. And 63,460 additional voters are people who most recently voted in a Republican primary but have also voted in Democrat primaries at some point in their voting lives. That’s compared to 33,847 voters who are Democrats with the same mixed primary record. If you believe the adage that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, you can draw conclusions from those numbers, as long as you remember that an adage is not a fact.
Ryan reports that almost a million other Texans who only vote in General Elections, have voted in both Democrat and Republican primaries or have no voting history at all, also cast their ballots in the first three days. That’s what we know. Everything else is speculation. You can sign up for Ryan’s Early Voting reports here.
Loser: Harris’ Trip to Texas
I frequently caution conservatives against thinking that Democrats’ are politically stupid, just because their policy positions are so often asinine. However, as Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick succinctly pointed out yesterday, the decision by Vice President Kamala Harris to spend one of the final days of her campaign in Texas, when she’s sinking in swing states, is one of the “dumbest political decisions I’ve ever seen.” Patrick rightly pointed out that Harris has no chance of winning Texas or boosting Democrat U.S. Senate nominee Colin Allred to victory over U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, particularly after Allred’s steadfast support for the transgender agenda has been revealed.
Apparently the vice president has forgotten that Texas is ground zero for the over 10 million illegal aliens who have crossed the border on her watch. Since she’s only been to El Paso and Arizona, she may not realize that Texas a state with a 1,254 miles long border with Mexico.
As for bringing Beyoncé to the stage in Houston to help her campaign, it is unlikely it will help Harris and may hurt the big star herself. Just look at another loser this week, Taylor Swift. Despite the fanfare when Swift’s endorsement of Harris was announced, her unfavorable ratings have increased 20 points among Republicans since she declared her support for the vice president. Swift has learned the “Bud Light,” lesson—don’t ‘dis your audience. Swift’s endorsement of Harris barely even raises her popularity among Democrats. She got about 5 points. It is unlikely Beyoncé will have any impact on the election, either.
Beyond dragging celebrities to the stage to endorse her, it is is also tough to figure out why even Democrats are asking why Harris won’t simply answer direct questions about the border, the economy, crime, or anything, really. The vice president’s Town Hall on CNN this week has been panned across the board by her own side with former Obama advisor David Axelrod calling it a trip to “word salad city.”
Winner: Gov. Greg Abbott Takes on Tren De Aragua
When asked about Harris’ visit to the Lone Star State, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott suggested she spend her time in Texas declaring the Venezuelan gang, Tren De Aragua, a foreign terrorist organization, as he has done. Abbott notes that Harris is visiting Houston, where 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray was raped and murdered by two Tren de Aragua gang members in June. Although Nungaray’s murderer was released on her watch, Harris has yet to apologize to her family or the other victims of violent crimes perpetrated by criminal illegal aliens. Abbott is right to press her on this outrageous omission every moment she is here.
Loser: DEI in the Military
Democrat U.S. Senate nominee Colin Allred helped shine a light on the problems with the United States military when it was revealed that he had just signed a letter asking Republicans to remove restrictions in the National Defense Reauthorization Act that would have prohibited the military from performing sex change operations on soldiers and allowing pride flags and drag shows on military bases. A Wall Street Journal op-ed this morning explains how such woke, DEI policies are fueling the decline in military enlistment.
We know that 80% of people who volunteer to serve in the military have family members who also served. But a new survey shows that many military family members no longer recommend that others join up—it’s down almost 20 points. Biden-Harris Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is pushing Biden’s order to embed DEI throughout the ranks of every branch of service, making diversity officially more important than competence, bravery or leadership.
Winner: City of Odessa Frees Women’s Restrooms
Striking a blow for women’s rights and security, the city of Odessa passed an ordinance this week that prohibits individuals from entering the restrooms of the opposite sex. We have fought this war before but Texans now have a clear understanding of the impact of opening women’s restrooms to everyone, and I predict Odessa will not be the only city that weighs in on the side of privacy for women and girls.
You gotta love how the Texas Tribune covered the issue. They put out a news story with the headline: “Odessa bans transgender people from using restrooms that don’t match sex assigned at birth.” So, before you even read the report that women in Odessa won’t have to worry about men coming in their restrooms, you must accept the theory, right there on the page in big baby blacks, that “sex is assigned at birth.” That’s quite a concept to swallow, particularly for anyone who has read a biology book.
Loser: University of Texas, Matthew McConaughey and those bottles on Texas Memorial Field
I am a big fan of Matthew McConaughey, but he was not nearly strong enough in admonishing his fellow Longhorn fans after the Georgia game on Saturday. “Not cool,” doesn’t begin to describe their move to throw bottles and trash on the field at Texas Memorial Stadium to protest a referee’s call. It was very badly done, especially for the team that, until late last Saturday, was ranked number one in the nation. No excuse will suffice.
UT has “Texas” in its name. Texas taxpayers pay for the flag ship school. Because of that, when you are on national television, you are representing the entire state, even Texans who proudly didn’t go to UT. Texas is a symbol of everything that is right about America and our great football teams are one of the ways we show the world who we are. Consequently, folks from the University of Texas can’t behave like a bunch of hockey fans from Saskatoon. Again, badly done.
UT has promised to track down the perpetrators and fine them for their offenses. Perhaps they should deploy the people who picked up the January 6 protesters. They got hundreds of those people using mostly using blurry clips from personal iPhones. The bad Longhorn fans were all on national TV. Should be easier.
Loser: Chicago is most rat infested city in the country.
Chicago was once again named the most rat infested city by Orkin, the pest control company. Chicago has now held the title for a decade. Don’t want to dwell on this yucky fact, but do want to note that no Republican-run city is on the top 10 list of rat-filled towns and no Texas city is in the top 20. Just saying.
Loser: Men Coming for Women’s Golf
Now there are a total of five women’s volleyball teams in the Mountain West that have forfeited their games rather than play San Jose State, whose team includes a man who thinks he’s a woman. The University of Nevada is the latest to bow out despite the administrators’ insistence that the game go on. The players didn’t back down, saying they “refuse[d] to participate in any match that advances injustice against female athletes” so despite the virtue signals of Nevada University bureaucrats they ultimately had to withdraw because they didn’t have a team.
That same injustice is threatening professional women’s golf. Now, 275 golfers in the LPGA have sent a letter to the LPGA brass saying they don’t want to play against men. This follows the inclusion of Hailey Davidson, a man who says he’s a woman, who is poised to qualify for the LPGA tour, beating out a woman for a coveted spot. The LPGA has developed “gender policies” that allow biological men to compete against women if they have undergone gender reassignment surgery. However, like in Nevada, it appears the folks in charge of the LPGA did not consult with the women who actually play golf before they changed the rules. LPGA players should take the same path as the volleyball players at the University of Nevada and simply take their sticks and walk away.
Another Big Game Day
Texas plays giant-killer Vanderbilt in Nashville tomorrow at 3:15 p.m. and Texas A&M will play LSU tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m. Hopefully, no fines will result.
Have a great weekend!
Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
Sign up to receive this in your inbox every week at www.texaspolicy.com/9thandCongress.
Follow me on X @sylvester1630 and follow my podcast, the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin to pick the week’s top Winners & Losers. It is now 17 days until the Nov. 5 election, but Texans can begin going to the polls Monday morning and since voter registration is off the charts—up almost 3 million since 2020—early voting sites will undoubtedly be busy. The election will be a fight to the finish, but the list this week also includes some winners who made history. Here’s the breakdown:
Winner: Netanyahu and the People of Israel
By killing Hamas terrorist Yahya Sinwar, the last Hamas leader who remained standing, Israel has wiped out the terrorist organization that attacked them on Oct. 7. Israel did exactly what any country should do in response to an evil terrorist attack—it completely destroyed the perpetrators. It is important to note that while the U.S. was clearly providing weapons and tactical support to Israel, the strategic victory was accomplished in spite of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not acquiesce to their demands that he pull back and go slow, including that they stay out of Rapha. If he had, Israel would not have been able to eliminate Sinwar. The Washington Post reports that Biden and Harris still believe the goal is a ceasefire. The Israelis rightly believe by destroying the Hamas and the infrastructure of Hezbollah, they have laid the groundwork for a surrender—a word that has yet to be uttered by the White House.
Winner: Elon Musk’s Rocket Returns
Most of the world has been watching space launches all our lives. Reaching for the stars is one endeavor in which humanity is united (more or less) and there’s nothing quite as glorious as watching a massive booster rocket lift a space craft into the sky. But this week we saw a spectacular change when the booster rocket did not fall away as debris, but instead floated back to the launch pad. Elon Musk has made another massive advance in space flight and it all happened in Boca Chica, Texas. So glad he’s here.
Winner: Sen. Ted Cruz’s Conservative Record (Plus he’s up by 7)
I’ve not heard anyone suggest that Cruz did not win the debate with his Democrat opponent, Congressman Colin Allred, on Tuesday, where they played out a dynamic we’re also seeing in the presidential campaign. Cruz repeatedly spoke about his record on issues that are priorities for Texans — the open border, the economy, crime rates and pushing the transgender agenda into our schools and communities. Allred, hit Cruz hard on abortion but he didn’t come close to knocking him out. Allred’s only other strategy was to level personal attacks at Cruz, calling him a “threat to democracy.” The charge was laughable. National Democrats have stopped using it on Trump because it doesn’t work.
Cruz was nicer than Allred, noting at one point that it is a testament to America that Allred, the son of a single mother from Brownsville and Cruz, son of an immigrant, are both honored to represent Texas in the U.S. Congress.
After weeks of watching the polls tighten in this race, the University of Texas Politics Poll released this morning shows Cruz with a 7 point lead. Earlier this week the Hobby Poll out of the University of Houston showed Cruz up 4. One interesting point in the Hobby Poll is that Allred and Cruz are tied among Hispanic voters. Beto O’Rourke beat Cruz by 27 points among Hispanics when he ran against him in 2018.
Loser: Vice President fails to acknowledge failures—or apologize
Fox News anchor Bret Baier’s interview with Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday worked like a Rorschach test for the country’s political pundits. Conservatives saw it as a long overdue confrontation for Harris with questions she has refused to answer and mistakes she won’t acknowledge, like how long she knew that President Biden was not on the top of his game even though she said he was. Harris supporters saw the Fox interview as an “ambush.”
The fact that she did the interview speaks volumes — it is a progressive admission that Fox, unlike MSNBC or CNN, is America’s most watched cable news network whose audience includes Democrats and Independents as well as conservatives. More than 7.1 million people watched the interview.
Harris refused to acknowledge the millions of illegal aliens who have flooded the border on her watch and she refused to specifically apologize for the deaths of three young women Baier questioned her about who were killed by illegal aliens. Instead, she blamed most everything on Donald Trump, who she mentioned 113 times in the interview.
When Baier asked her about Trump’s clearly effective ad revealing her commitment to providing sex change surgeries for illegal immigrants in prison she described it as “very remote from the concerns of the American people.” That’s a typical Democrat mistake. While the transgender issue does not rank as high as the economy, the border, and crime among priority concerns for voters, the issue provides quick insight into whether a candidate has common sense, supports women and families, and the science which dictates that one’s sex is not a choice. The fact that Kamala is running with the ‘they/them’ crowd, speaks volumes, and is one reason the newest polls show she has lost the lead she held for the past month.
Loser: The FBI crime statistics were wrong, too
Was it just a month ago that the New York Times and others reported that the U.S. Labor Department claimed almost a million more jobs had been added to the work force than were actually created? The adjusted data put a damper on the Biden-Harris administration’s insistence that their economic programs were working.
Yesterday we learned that the FBI has quietly “adjusted” the crime statistics to show that crime has actually increased by 4.9%, not decreased 1.7% as they previously reported. We all remember that how ABC News anchor David Muir “fact checked” former President Trump during his debate with Harris last month, claiming that FBI data shows “overall violent crime is coming down in this country.”
That 4.9% increase is the result of 1,197,930 violent crimes reported in 2021 and 1,256,671 reported in 2022.
Speaking of jobs, when the national jobs reports come out a couple weeks ago, I noted that it always appears to me that the Biden-Harris administration takes credit for jobs that are actually created in Texas. This morning, Gov. Greg Abbott released a report showing that Texas has outpaced the U.S. in job growth once again.
Loser: Biden Forgives More Student Loan Debt
Defying a ruling by the United States Supreme Court (would that be a threat to democracy?), the Biden-Harris Administration announced another $4.5 billion in student loan debt relief this week, bringing the total amount of taxpayer dollars used to pay off student loans to $175 billion. Vice President Harris also promised a million $20,000 loans to African-American entrepreneurs, surely related to polls suggesting she is losing the votes of black men. She says the loans are “fully forgivable.” If that’s true, is it really a loan. Isn’t it a gift? Just asking.
Winner: Sen. J.D. Vance, “Do you hear yourself.”
When ABC News anchor Martha Raddatz snarled at Republican Vice Presidential nominee J.D. Vance this week that “only a handful of apartment complexes” in Colorado have been taken over by violent gangs of illegal aliens,” Vance quickly responded: “Do you hear yourself? Only a handful of apartment complexes…”
It’s a good point. What is the acceptable number of apartment complexes that can be taken over by violent gangs of illegal aliens?
For the record, it does not appear that Raddatz ever “heard” herself.
Loser: San Jose State Women’s Volleyball Team
It all began when Boise State Women’s Volleyball Team announced it would forfeit the game rather than play against San Jose State who has a man pretending to be a woman on their team. Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming in the Mountain West quickly followed suit. Players at the University of Nevada also wanted to forfeit, but that was before the DEI infused university bureaucrats got in the fight. The Nevada players said that administrators at their school did not consult them before they were informed they would not be allowed to forfeit. Players still insist they don’t want to play because they don’t feel safe. Hats off to the courageous athletes who are fighting this latest battle to save women’s sports.
Game Day!
No such worries tomorrow when both the No. 1 Texas Longhorns and the No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs will take the field in Austin at 6:30 p.m. The No. 14 Aggies are playing Mississippi State at 3 p.m.
Have a great weekend.
Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
Sign up to receive this in your inbox every week at www.texaspolicy.com/9thandCongress.
Follow me on X @sylvester1630 and follow my podcast, the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.